Diane Shao is a physician-scientist and pediatric neurologist whose work investigates the genetic origins of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Her research probes the developing human brain at single-cell resolution, sequencing the genomes of individual neurons to understand how and when the brain’s genome diversifies. This work has revealed that neurons can differ from one another far more than previously appreciated, offering a new lens on where neurodevelopmental conditions come from and the complex genetic landscape of an individual’s brain.

Shao earned her undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and statistics, graduating summa cum laude from Rice University, and completed the Harvard Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D., Ph.D.), where her doctoral thesis examined cancer genetic susceptibilities. She completed residency in pediatric neurology and fellowship in neurogenetics at Boston Children’s Hospital. She did her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Christopher A. Walsh at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Shao is a member of the NIH Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network.